My Spark Plug Endeavor

[Ornery]

The Townmeister! I so wish I could have talked my wife into a Town Car instead of the Explorer. My '94 Executive has been ridiculously little trouble over ten years ownership. Same with our Grand Marquis'. Just fill 'em with gas & oil and drive! Rust is the only thing doing them in now.

But, she wanted a mini van, or something similar. No way I'd buy a FWD anything for fear of the repair complexity. Looks like I traded one type of problems for another. Well, at least it ain't a mini van! And, with the help of this forum, and people like you, I feel like I can take care of most of the issues without running to the dealer.

Thanks for the help and enjoy the rest of the weekend, eh?

 

[BigNutz]

We should set up a Lisle tool rental/ borrow system on here. Thanks for posting your experience. I'm looking forward to knocking this out.....

Do you think an electric impact wrench (Good one like Dewalt) would work as well? I've never used one....

 

[Ornery]

BN, you know how much I know about impact wrenches? Google "impact wrench" and you'll see 90% of it. This is the first time I've messed with one in decades! I got the compressor and assortment of air tools from my dad about twenty years ago. None of it very high quality. Bought my own 3/8" right angle air ratchet, which is very low power, but handy in tight spots. Don't even use that anymore. 90% of the stuff I do is done with my 3/8" flex head ratchet and 6 point deep well sockets. Never touch the impacts. Been using my standard lug wrench for removing wheels, but I will use the impact from now on.

That Craftsman I used is capable of spinning off lug nuts torqued to 100 ft-lbs, but you heard how it labored to bust those plugs out. Doesn't make sense to me. I still don't get how it works, but I KNOW you have to set the compressor to a higher output.

While experimenting with the Harbor Freight drive last night, I saw my compressor was actually only getting up to 120 lbs. But, the difference between 100 and 120 lbs is HUGE! Anybody doing this project better be using a compressor with over 100 lbs output or expect the worst. Maybe high end impacts can make better use of lower power, but I don't know.

Like I said, I've had very little impact experience, but one experience I had was watching a rookie tire buster rip two studs off one of my wheels with an impact set too high. The other three came off just fine with a lug wrench! So again, how this trick works with the plugs is beyond me. Will an electric work? No idea!

Oh, and the Lisle tool's puller screw will be destroyed if people use it without lubing it. Mine is going on Ebay for close to $50 and $5 shipping. It can be had for $59 and shipped free from Amazon, but many Ebay shoppers don't know that. They just know their local auto parts store wants $100 for it. I'll work a deal with you if you're interested.

Edit: And, if you want the "Earthquake" impact, I'll sell it for what I paid ($74.98), plus the actual shipping cost. No cheaper than Harbor Freight, but I'll get it there a helluva lot quicker than those numb nuts! Buy 'em both at once to defray the shipping cost.

Edit II: Now on Ebay, but I still have a fancy 9/16" spark plug socket to unload...

 

[NORDFORD]

Thanks for the info Ornery. I've been running seafoam and premium fuel plus did the 3m intake cleaning anticipation of this. I used my cordless DeWalt impact model dc823. Worked like a charm. It took me 28 minutes start to finish. Thanks again for the info. My 07 has just under 65,000 miles on it.